On the Ice Continent

Published: July 1, 1990

To the Editor:

As manager of the polar information program for the National Science Foundation, I would like to respond to Katherine Bouton's review of three children's books about Antarctica (May 20), which criticizes man's presence there.

Antarctica picks up many signs of global change before we notice them in the rest of the world; man's presence there records these changes - it does not cause them. A scientist wintering at Halley, Antarctica, discovered the ozone hole; stratospheric chemists flown to McMurdo Station in the really cold months figured out what causes it.

True, some expeditions have not been tidy. Robert F. Scott, on his way to the South Pole in 1911, left trash on Ross Island that's still there today. People at the modern research stations are cleaning up messes their forebears should not have left.

But even the penguins, anthropomorphized in two of the reviewed books, must take some solace from our presence on the ice continent when they see what we are learning from it. They too will cheer when man, through actions hastened by findings from Antarctica, limits further damage to our planet.